The present invention relates generally to analyzing the dynamic unbalance of a rotating body, and in particular to a method of and apparatus for analyzing such unbalances using a computer for deriving digital data representing the magnitude and angular location of an unbalance mass of the rotating body.
Since an excessive amount of unbalance mass of a rotating body produces vibration and noise, and considerably reduces the life span of the whole rotating mechanism, the magnitude and angular location of the unbalance mass desirably analyzed with a great degree of precision. This is of importance to high-speed, high precision type rotating systems, in particular to an automatic correcting machine in which the unbalance mass is removed in response to analyzed data. However, in prior art systems input variables are analyzed by analog circuits and output variables are indicated on an analog display unit. On the other hand, low cost, digital unbalance correcting machines have been developed as a result of the recent introduction of low cost microcomputers and numerical control systems, with the result that the output variables of the unbalance analyzing apparatus are of digital values. The use of prior art analyzing apparatus necessitates analog-to-digital conversion of the analog output data before it is applied to the correcting machine. This would constitute an obstacle to the creation of an automatic process in which the analysis and correction of an unbalance mass are automatically processed and to the improvement of data precision.
Furthermore, in applications where the unbalance correction is made manually by an operator, the analog indicator must be read off, involving an error on the part of the operator.